Tragedy, fortune, good times, hard times, success, and failure. How and why do all these things happen? Is your success at work a product of your hard work or God’s blessing? Is the tragedy that just befell your family a result of the fall or a trial from God?
No matter what background of Christianity you come from, we all wrestle with trying to understand how our actions and God’s sovereignty work. What Christian hasn’t turned their eyes toward the heavens and sought to understand how the hand of God moves the winds of time?
In some ways, discussions around what it means to be Reformed have been (unfortunately) reduced down to the topic of God’s sovereignty, though typically this is limited to his sovereignty in salvation (i.e. the ever-abused and often less-than-helpful moniker of Calvinism). But there is some warrant for this as the Reformers, not ones to shy away from tackling challenging issues, took a very high view of God’s sovereignty in the “governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”
Let’s take a look then at some representative texts from the Reformed tradition so as to better understand how they understood the Scriptures to speak to God’s providence over all things, and man’s responsibility as a free agent.
Defining God’s Providence
The Heidelberg Catechism Q.27 defines God’s sovereignty/providence as follows:
God’s providence is His almighty and ever-present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand.
This statement is remarkably comprehensive and all-encompassing. The question is, however, is it scripturally warranted?
Scripture’s Testimony
The catechism lists some of the following as texts the authors believed taught this view of God’s sovereignty:
Jeremiah 23:23-24
“Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.”
Proverbs 16:33
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
Acts 14:15-17
“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
But why does this matter? Why is it important for us to see that God’s hand steers the ship? The Heidelberg again has our answer in Q.28:
We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.
Because not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father (Matt. 10:29), even though we may not know the exact answer to our “why?”, we can rest in the Father’s love and wisdom. He is above all things, and nothing catches him by surprise.
The Paradox of Evil and Free Will
Admittedly, this may cause us some anxiety in trying to understand why evil things happen if God is fully in control of all things. The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 3, section 1, addresses this:
God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.
The Bible is clear that God is not the author of sin (Psalm 5:4, James 1:13-14, 1 John 1:5) and that the will of the creature is not violated in any way. We have several places in Scripture we can look to for an example of how this plays out.
Maybe the most classic example is that of Joseph and his brothers throwing him into a pit intending his death. In God’s providence, a caravan comes along, so they betray their own kin, selling him to pagans. At the conclusion of the narrative, when Joseph has now become the second-in-command over Egypt, he tells his brothers:
Genesis 50:19-20
“…Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
Notice how it does not say that what you meant for evil, God worked out for good? The word is the exact same for both agents: the brothers and God. Selling Joseph into slavery was an evil act on the part of the brothers, but it was ultimately an act of salvation on the part of God.
Another example, typified by the story of Joseph, can be found in probably the greatest sin ever committed by humanity, the crucifixion of our God:
Acts 2:22-23
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Jesus was crucified at the hands of men. They are fully responsible for that action. Yet, we see that it was also according to the divine plan and foreknowledge of God.
The Scriptures do not see the foreknowledge of God as some kind of looking down the corridor of time to see what choices humanity will make so that God may then work things out in a certain way. Just as in the case with Joseph, what those who crucified the Lord of glory meant for evil, God meant for good. God is not reacting, and humanity is not a gaggle of marionettes.
Understanding the Paradox
This does not sit well with our brains, but that is maybe a defining characteristic of a paradox. The Reformed did not want to go too far beyond Scripture in attempting to understand this paradox, though they did look to a classical philosophical category of causation to help a little bit. WCF 5.2 states:
Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, he orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
God acts, and we act. Our acts do not trump God’s, nor does God’s sovereign reign negate the responsibility of his free-willed creatures.
A Sovereign Hope
In conclusion, let us keep in mind that, “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps.” (Psalm 135:6). This is the comfort we look to in time of trial. Just as Christ did, as Peter says:
1 Peter 2:23
“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
We may not know the “why’s,” but we can know that because God is sovereign, one day all evil will be dealt with, and all things will be made right because God is sovereign and will judge rightly. Because if God is not sovereign, then all evil is pointless, and the Christian has no hope.
But we do have hope! And at Christ the King Presbyterian Church, we sing a hymn by Margaret Clarkson, and so I’ll leave you with this poetic yet robustly doctrinal cantus:
O Father, you are sovereign
In all the worlds you made;
Your mighty word was spoken,
And light and life obeyed.
Your voice commands the seasons
And bounds the ocean’s shore,
Sets stars within their courses
And stills the tempest’s roar.
O Father, you are sovereign
In all affairs of man;
No pow’rs of death or darkness
Can thwart your perfect plan.
All chance and change transcending,
Supreme in time and space,
You hold your trusting children
Secure in your embrace.
O Father, you are sovereign,
The Lord of human pain,
Transmuting earthly sorrows
To gold of heav’nly gain.
All evil overruling,
As none but Conqu’ror could,
Your love pursues its purpose—
Our souls’ eternal good.
O Father, you are sovereign!
We see you dimly now,
But soon before your triumph
Earth’s ev’ry knee shall bow.
With this glad hope before us,
Our faith springs up anew:
Our sovereign Lord and Savior,
We trust and worship you!
FURTHER STUDY
If God is sovereign, does prayer matter? Explore the answer in Why Pray in a Calvinist World?
Support the Work
Help Keep Reformed Dogmatika Freely Available
Reformed Dogmatika is offered freely as a theological library. If this article has served you, consider helping us continue publishing thoughtful, confessionally Reformed resources.
Deepen Your Study
Join our community to receive Reformed reflections and resources delivered to your inbox.
